


Forgotten Nightmares

by ai_katsuu



Series: Red Shoes Ever After [8]
Category: Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarfs (2019), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25792297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_katsuu/pseuds/ai_katsuu
Summary: After regaining their human forms, the F7 go out on their first quest, only to be stopped by one of the most famed villains in Fairy Tales.
Relationships: Arthur/Gwen, Hans/Briar Rose, Jack/Audrey - Relationship, Kio/Peter Pan, Merlin/Snow White, Noki/Goldie, Pino/ Gretel
Series: Red Shoes Ever After [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872790
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

“We’ll be back in a couple of weeks,” Merlin said, collecting his spells, “it’s our first mission in three years but we’ve had enough training prior.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.” Arthur grabbed Excalibur. The Fearless Seven had finally broken their curse and they had to make up for the three years they were inactive as a group. Luckily a letter came to the White Palace requesting assistance from children in a far off village. They stated that someone wearing a dark coat on a horse has been snatching kids. Of course, they accepted and decided to leave the next day.

“So what happens if like, one of you defeats the bad guy on his own? Do they get the sole credit or the entire F7?” Peter asked. 

“All of us.” “Just them.”

Merlin and Arthur said those at the same time. They looked at each other and started arguing.

Jack rolled his eyes, “If there’s anything I don’t miss about our missions it’s this.” 

“I’m just thankful we can use our weapons again instead of lugging the machine around.” Pino said holding his crossbow. 

“Hans, I don’t think you should bring that much food. That’s at least a month’s worth.” Gretel rested her head on her hand as she sat down on the kitchen table.

“I’m just excited, that’s all!” he happily said. 

“Have you guys gotten used to your human bodies again?” Audrey asked Noki and Kio 

“Honestly we didn’t really feel a difference,” Noki laughed. 

“It doesn’t affect my work that much.” Kio got his cannon. 

“Well I hope you guys will be safe!” Snow chirped. 

They left just before the sun rose with their partners waving them goodbye. As soon as they were out of sight Snow immediately closed the door. 

“Alright, they’re gone. Are all of your stuff packed?” 

Goldie nodded, “I said I was packing stuff for him but really it was just mine and he didn’t notice, which is weird cause I was holding an expensive fur coat.” 

The moment the partners had found out the F7 were leaving, they decided to use this to their advantage. 

_“Peter, Gretel, Audrey and Snow are calling you!” “Don’t run down the stairs!” Noki scolded from where he was working._

_As the pair caught up with Goldie, they entered the large parlor where Audrey and Snow sat. Across them were Briar and Gwen._

_Audrey, arms crossed and one leg over the other, spoke “Oh good, you’re here. Sit down.” she gestured to the chairs and couches. Goldie sat next to Snow and Gwen, whilst Gretel sat opposite to Audrey beside Briar, and Peter preferred to lie down mid-air as he listened_

_. “So we all know that the F7 are leaving tomorrow for that mission,” Audrey began, “and what does that mean for us when they’re not here?” she asked._

_“Bored partners?” Goldie cocked her head._

_“Wrong!” Audrey grinned and snapped her fingers, “Free partners.”_

_Curiosity peered in between the six of them,_

_“What do you mean?” Snow asked._

_“Think about it. What’s the one place you’ve always wanted to go on Fairy Tale Island but never could since they said it was ‘too dangerous’” Audrey held up air quotes._

_At this Peter gasped, “Kio’s bedroom.”_

_“No.” Gretel gave him a tired look._

_Gwen was next as she figured it out, “The Snow Queen’s Castle!”_

_“Exactly! It’s abandoned, it’s isolated, it’s perfect!” Audrey clapped her hands._

_“No way! I’ve been dying to go there for years!” Briar shook Gretel’s arm._

_Gretel chuckled “I once asked Hans if we could go when we were little” she paused and frowned, “he didn’t give me dessert for a week.”_

_“And now is our chance,” Audrey pressed on, “It was always ‘too risky’ ‘too slippery’ ‘too dangerous’ ‘too cold’. Well, it’s not like we’re helpless without them, quite the opposite actually, so let’s go!” The others nodded in agreement._

_“Wait,” Briar held a hand up and looked at the floating boy,_

_“Peter,”_

_“Hm?”_

_“You cannot tell anyone.”_

_Peter frowned, “What do you mean, I’m trustworthy!”_

_“You told Snow about her own surprise party as well as Gretel’s birthday gift.”_

_Peter groaned in frustration and fell to his back, “Fine.”_

_“Promise it!” Goldie exclaimed. Peter raised his pinky up, “Promise..”_

_“Mm, yeah not good enough.” Audrey stood up and took a safety pin off her cloak. “Blood pact,” she said as she pricked his pinky causing him to yelp._

Back to present day, they got their stuff ready and left around an hour later, venturing to the Northern Mountains of Fairy Tale Island.

North West from them was the Fearless Seven, who were almost at their destination. 

“Are you sure we’re up for this mission?” Jack asked his friends. 

Merlin raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m not talking about strength, but rather, don’t you find it strange that the letter was sent by a child?” 

“Well it could be that none of the adults take them seriously, that’s a common element that happen in a lot of situations on this Island. Usually the children are correct” Hans said.

“Right you are, Hans, we’ve got nothing to worry about.” Arthur said.

“Also,” Noki chimed in, “This is our first mission where we all have someone by our side now. We have to be more careful with ourselves.” 

Merlin widened his eyes, “Oh, you’re right, Noki, I didn’t even think about that.” he thought. 

The rest of the F7 thought about that and they were suddenly uptight. “C’mon don’t spring that on us!” Kio hit his brother on the back.

“I’m not- it’s just a fact-” 

“We’ll be fine. We always are!” Pino did the same action.

“Well, it looks like we have nothing to face or fear…literally.” Hans looked on ahead.

The rest of the group followed his gaze to the village up ahead. Dark, gloomy, broken, and empty were the right words to describe it. Merlin sharpened his gaze, “Check for any survivors! Hurry!”

The group spread out looking inside the houses, but it looked as if no one had been here.

Kio looked inside the stables, “What..?” he called the rest of the group inside, “Did you guys find anything?”

“Non,” Jack shook his head, “everything is empty. It’s as if no one had been here in years.” 

Kio nodded, “Well look at this,” he gestured to the feed, “there’s fresh horse feed in here. And it’s warm.” 

“But we’ve bumped into no one on the way here, and this town is a dead end, we would’ve seen them!” Arthur said. 

“Where are the children though, did they evacuate?” Hans asked. 

Pino thought for a bit, “Merlin?”

“Yeah?” 

“What did the letter say this town was called again?”

_“Sleepy Hollow.”_

Pino frowned when he heard the name again, “I feel like I’ve heard this town’s name a long time ago…I just don’t remember what it was.” Finding this town was difficult for them when the town name was mentioned in the letter, none of them seemed to know anything about it. 

_“And it’ll stay that way, Fearless Seven.”_

Noki was the first one to turn around before a large wave of black and orange flames engulfed them. 


	2. Forgotten Legend

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Goldie asked. 

“Yeah, I used to come to these parts all the time, but I never quite made it past the Yeti’s in the area,” Audrey said as she moved past a glacier, “Well neither did Frost.” she mumbled. 

“If even Jack Frost didn’t make it past them then how safe are we?” Snow questioned as she dug her foot out from the large pile of…well, snow. **  
**

“It’s October,” Briar explained, “I read that they hibernate this time around in preparation to help Santa Claus for Christmas!” Briar was easily leading the pack, as she was the one with the most stamina.

“I really hope I’m on the Nice List,” Gwen breathed out, a little tired, “I didn’t know what I was doing when I ate those Elvish cookies. They get scary.” 

“Oh, I can’t wait to get my gifts this year!” Peter, who was having the easiest time, floated above them. Gwen frowned at this action. 

“Please, you probably hold the record for the naughty list, almost tied with Frost probably..” Audrey said. 

Gretel wasn’t listening to the conversation as she looked at her own device. It was a small, black, brick-like device that had several green circles around its glass portion. There was a green line that went around the circle and another tiny green dot that itched her mind. When Audrey took a look at it before, she told her to call it a GPS device. Gretel wasn’t sure what that meant but she liked the name.

“Whatcha looking at?” Peter stooped down to her level.

“I think somethings wrong,” she mumbled. 

Peter took in a sharp amount of air, “Yeesh, I wasn’t gonna say anything about your coat, but agreed. I’ll chuck it over the next mountain we pass.” 

“What? No.” she frowned, “I’m talking about the F7, something’s not right.” the rest of the group had their attention caught and they listened in. 

“You see this orange dot?” Gretel pointed at the screen, “That’s supposed to be the town they’re in. This green dot is them, more specifically Pino.” she pointed to the dot all the way opposite to the screen. 

“Wow, you keep a tracker on your boyfriend?” Goldie cocked her head. 

Gretel frowned at her, “No, I just gave one to him in case something went wrong, it is their first mission after all.” 

“Wait so, why aren’t they at the village?” Snow asked. 

“That’s the weird thing, I checked ten minutes ago and they were there, and when I just saw now it’s as if they were transported all the way over to the opposite side of Fairy Tale Island.”

“You think they’re in danger?” Briar held her hands to her chest. 

“I don’t know…but I don’t like this.” she responded. 

Audrey nodded, “We should go check on them.”

Gwen agreed, “If they’re fine, then we can just go back home if ever. We don’t even have to let them see us. ” 

The rest of the group agreed to the plan. The group took a large amount of snow and melted it to water, so that Audrey could make a slide that would freeze the water, making the trip down easier. 

On the other side, The Fearless Seven had just woken up. In a panic, the first thing they did was look at their skin. 

“Are we burnt?!” Jack looked at his hands. Unfortunately, they were tied to their backs, and their ankles were restrained as well. 

“No,” Hans confirmed as he looked over his shoulder, “But those were definitely flames.” 

Arthur took a look at their surroundings, it was a very large, empty, almost sewer-like, circular room. They couldn’t even see the ceiling of the room as it was probably a dome. 

They were all against the wall as there was only one ray of light in the center of the room. Merlin looked up and saw that there was a window at the top of the dome, “So we weren’t out for that long…” 

“Your resistance is strong..I’ll give you guys that.” a silky male voice echoed through the room.

“Who are you?” Merlin asked. 

“Oh, how I used to be known by many,” a warm draft of wind passed by them, “I used to scare the hearts out of children and adults. I sent people of all ages to therapy, depression, and trauma. What a wonderful time that was.” they could hear the sounds of hooves clopping through the walls, “But alas, my legend faded into time, I was forgotten. The deal was sealed when you seven began restoring hope in the citizens of…Fairy Tale Island.” he said mockingly. 

“Finally, we can all put an end to this.” 

**Something ran its way down the Fearless Seven’s spines. They began to sweat, hunch their shoulders, and shook as they pressed their backs to the wall as much as they could. They had long forgotten who this was, but nightmares and all their fears came running back from childhood, stories told by their elders when they saw who stepped out of the shadows.**

A top of the black horse that had bloodshot eyes, was a man gigantic in height and muffled in a black cloak. On his side was the scabbard said to hold the sword sharper than Excalibur. They could not see his head, for he had none as blood trickled down his neck. 

Pino almost threw up in his mouth as he shook in fear, _**‘I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. Why didn’t I remember sooner-’**_

“Scared, puppet boy?!” a flaming pumpkin head came close to Pino and smiled maniacally. It let out a mocking laugh before looking at him seriously. “Your father used to be terrified of me as a young boy. Shaking outside of his father’s shop because he refused to walk in the woods late at night. What a delightful sight that was for me.”

“Don’t you dare talk about Papa like that!” Noki yelled furiously. 

“Or what?!” The head quickly turned to him, “You’ll lie to me? Again and again and again?” 

Noki was about to yell something back at him before he took a glance at Arthur and Merlin. In all the five years he had known them, he had never seen their faces in that expression. Their terrified sweaty faces told him one thing, 

**“Don’t be stupid.”**

“That’s what I thought,” the head backed away. “And you? Got anything else to say?” He turned to Kio. He merely kept quiet and stared at him. 

“You’re the…” Merlin swallowed, “The Headless Horseman…” his voice came out much more shaky than he wanted it to be. Nevertheless, he continued, “You were the one person who everyone feared. You were beyond a nightmare…until today’s Golden Age-” 

**“That’s right, you son of a bitch!”** the Headless Horseman yelled. “It was you seven who began fixing this Island’s problems. It was a joy for me when you all had suddenly gone missing, then little by little, one by one, you began resurfacing.” the head floated back to its body, it’s left arm held it by its side. “My story is so old that my letter fooled you into thinking Sleepy Hollow was actually in Fairy Tale Island. New York is a sham now…” he mumbled.

“You wrote that letter?” Jack spoke and immediately regretted it as soon as he did. 

“Of course, beanstalk. I was surprised how easy it was to bring you, idiots, here. Once I decapitate all of you at midnight, soon the townspeople will be singing the song as old as time, just in time for Halloween. Come now,

_When ghosts have a midnight jamboree_

_They break it up with fiendish glee_

_Ghosts are bad but the one that’s cursed_

_Is the Headless Horseman, he’s the worst!”_

The Headless Horseman laughed as he sang around the room. The F7, smart enough not to talk to each other, began formulating any sort of plan to escape, but all routes just seemed to lead to doom. He continued to sing as his horse trotted around:

_“When he goes a-jogging across the land_

_Holding his noggin in his hand_

_Demons take one look and groan_

_And hit the road for parts unknown”_

“Ah how I miss this melody!” he yelled out, _“There’s-”_

“There’s no fright like a spook that’s spurned,”

“They don’t like him and he’s really burnt,”

“Swears to the longest day he’s dead,” 

“He’ll show them that he can get a head.” 

Voices echoed from the top of the dome. For a moment, the F7 saw the Headless Horseman in disbelief before he got angry.

“Who’s there?!”


	3. God Shattering Star

“I’ve always been a fan of you, I have to admit.” Audrey’s voice sounded from above.

“When I was alone I would always sing your song when working.” Gretel continued.

“Isolation in the woods, part of me had hoped you would have arrived, that’s how desperate I was.” Briar said.

“You were a nice story I always used to tell my Lost Boys, around a hundred years ago,” Peter spoke.

“Who. Are. you?” The Headless Horseman questioned.

“We want you to release the F7!” Goldie yelled, making it all too familiar to the boys who they were.

“Goldie, remember when we said we were going to let them do the talking?” Snow gently hushed her.

“Right, sorry!”

The Headless Horseman huffed, “You want them? Then come get them,” he unsheathed his sword that, admittedly made everyone in the room quiver in fear.

“Alright then, Briar, shall we?”

“Let’s go!” Briar and Audrey dropped down from the ceiling platform. Briar devilishly smiled as the horse revved its motor with its hoof.

“I’ll let you get started first, meet you in a bit.” Audrey told her.

“Got it!”

Audrey quickly disappeared as the horse charged at the pair.

Briar hastily drew her sword and clashed with the Horseman. She was able to jump on the horse's head as she fought him. The horse had reared up in panic, causing the Horseman to fall down. “Audrey!”

The latter quickly dashed forward and gashed deep slits at the Horseman’s body with her sharp water swords. He tried to reach for his sword but it was quickly grabbed by Briar who pointed it at him. He grunted in frustration as his head came to attack Audrey with its flames, however it was quickly put out as she blasted gallons of water on it.

“Your turn!” she yelled as the Headless Horseman started to make a quick recovery.

Briar and Audrey jumped back up to the ceiling only for three more individuals to drop down. “Peter, why don’t you take the first one, distract him for us.” Gretel said and Goldie smiled as she twisted her axe on her fingers.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Peter flew to his direction and picked his head up, throwing it up and treating it like a volleyball. “You’ve got some major anger management issues, my guy.”

“Put me down, boy!” he yelled.

Peter looked sideways for a bit and smiled, “If you say so,” he let his head drop and as soon as it reached the ground, the Horseman heard a voice soon after from above. He looked above and saw Goldie yelling a battle cry as she had her axe ready to smash his head. To his luck he rolled away and her axe hit the floor.

Stuck on the ground for a brief moment, Goldie grunted, “Urgh…” her eyes were dark as she freed her axe and said the following words, “You’re making me work!” and successfully swung his head to the wall.

They were too preoccupied with the head that he didn’t notice that his body was being planted with bombs by Gretel. “We’re out of here, give it thirty seconds! Snow, Gwen, finish it!” she yelled as they jumped back up.

The mentioned fell down, “Ready?” Snow asked Gwen who nodded and turned into her Werewolf form.

The Headless Horseman saw the transformation and frowned, “Oh, it’s you. You know the original Werewolf would’ve loved this.”

Snow grabbed the head and immediately crushed it with her bare hands before he mumbled something soon after. Gwen gashed the body with her claws as much as she could and threw it to the side, far from the F7 as she reverted back to human.

The rest of the group jumped down once more. Audrey moved her hands forward and created a wall of water around the body. Once she did she nodded at Gretel who pressed a button on her remote, and a violent explosion shook the walls. The Headless Horseman was no more.

Audrey removed the wall only to see ash left on the floor. The Fearless Seven were finally able to breathe again, as their backs hurt from all the tension and nervousness they felt. Their partners immediately tried to free them.

“Merlin!” Snow broke his chains with her hands.

“Snow-ohwoh-I wasshk, and i ashuf.” Merlin started rambling gibberish as Snow comforted him.

“Are you alright?” Audrey whispered as Jack hugged her,

“Thank heavens you’re here..” he mumbled gratefully.

“Told you my tracker was useful,” Gretel told Pino as she freed him.

“Yeah, you’re right.” he forced a chuckle, still shaken up.

“Did you see me?! I missed at first but then I hit him like I scored a home run-”

“Yeah, yeah, I saw…” Noki collapsed on Goldie’s shoulder out of exhaustion.

Kio was oddly quiet as Peter freed him, which made him feel awkward “Hey..so..are you like, okay? Or-” and Kio threw his arms around him as he lightly sobbed. Just lightly though.

“You think I should keep this?” Briar referred to the Horseman’s sword as she cut Hans loose with it.

“No, could be cursed.” he laughed, although like Pino, slightly forced.

“You alright? You had no trouble transforming?” Arthur worriedly asked Gwen.

“I’m fine! It was easy.” she grinned.

As the group made their way back home, the F7 was still oddly quiet.

“Geez, you guys are still that shaken up about it?” Peter frowned.

“You weren’t there when he first appeared! It was terrifying, like the stories but much worse!” Arthur explained,

“Yeah have you ever had his head up close to you?” Noki exclaimed.

“I literally just knocked his head out like he was a golf ball like, thirty minutes ago.” Goldie said.

“Well, on the bright side, we’re passing by a beautiful sunset now.” Gretel smiled as she looked to her left.

They were passing by a road that overlooked the sea, to their right was a large field that would’ve been perfect to have a picnic. Gwen made a mental note in her mind that she wanted to come back here.

“Well, it is beautiful indeed,” Hans noted as he looked at the reflecting ocean.

“Pretty if we had a camera,” Kio said.

Briar raised her eyebrows, “Hey, what time is it?”

“4:13, why?” Pino told her.

“It’s just, why are the clouds so dark and gloomy? And it’s getting pretty cold..” she shook her arms.

“Would this be Frost again?” Snow White asked.

Jack shook his head, “He’s in the North Pole with the other Guardians helping for Christmas, right Audrey?

But Audrey had her head down and didn’t respond as she stood perfectly still.

“Mon amour?” Jack went up to her and tucked her hair behind her ears. As soon as he did he almost immediately flinched back as he saw the pupils of her eyes were no more. It was as if she went blind again.

“Audrey?! Can you hear me?” he tried shaking her but she would budge.

“Merlin!” Jack turned around as Snow yelled. He too was in the same state as her.

“What’s happening to them?!” Briar looked in panic.

“This is almost scary..” Gwen scrunched her face in worry.

The clouds became darker and bright light flashed for a second before a loud boom in the sky was heard. After the thunder, rain began pouring down, softy at first, but then the droplets became bigger, and it almost hurt their skin, like needles were falling down from the sky.

Merlin and Audrey then began to walk in sync, out of the road and into the big field. “What are they doing?” Arthur yelled out through the raging winds.

Merlin took his spells out, and lighting all the way from the clouds reached his hands. Audrey lifted her right arm to the ocean, and gallons of violent water came to her side.

“No way…are they gonna fight?!” Peter exclaimed.

Snow suddenly then gasped, she heard the Headless Horseman mumble something just before she crushed his head:

“At the sixteenth hour and thirteenth minute, one of you shall join me in my doom. I will not perish alone.”

“The Horseman..he cursed them, just before he died. Merlin and Audrey won’t stop fighting until one of them dies.” Snow said fearfully.

“We have to stop them!” Jack yelled.

Immediately after he did, Audrey and Merlin disappeared for a moment, before reappearing again and caused the biggest explosion of water with electricity running through it. Trees were burnt and drowned at the same time, and the group had managed to take cover on a slope.

“How the hell are they this powerful?” Hans grunted as he put his wok out as a shield.

Merlin and Audrey kept throwing their elements at each other, not stopping as destruction of the ground was far from their minds. Audrey restrained Merlin’s limbs with water chains before he generated electricity, making it run across the water forcing Audrey to drop him. It was at this moment where Snow hit her head against Merlin’s, and Jack punched Audrey’s head with his ring, knocking the two out as their elements died down.

The storm was clearing up and the group used this as an opportunity to head back to the White Palace, in fear of any other curses that might take place.

Merlin’s eyes shot open as he sat up on his bed. “What happened-”

“Merlin!” Snow and Arthur rushed to his side.

“God, if there’s one thing I know now, it’s to never upset you and Audrey at the same time.”

“Me and…what happened? We were just at the sunset- “

“It’s alright, we’ll tell you everything later.” Snow assured him.

On the opposite room, Audrey slowly woke up as well.

Isabella gasped, “Your highness, she’s awake!” she called out.

Jack hastily came out of the bathroom and ran to his wife and her maid. “Are you alright? Who am I? Who is she?” He quickly asked her.

“What…Jack..and Isabella…what are you talking about?”

Jack sighed in relief, “Good, I didn’t hit you too hard.”

Everyone else was in the parlor, eating dinner as it was quiet all around. “Are we really sure he’s gone?” Goldie asked.

“Snow made sure of it, he could’ve only brought out one curse by the time she killed him.” Kio nodded.

“It’s already past the deadline for that curse, so they’ll be a hundred percent okay.” Noki followed up.

Gretel looked at her brother, “You don’t think there are other old Nightmares that are still out there, are there?”

Hans shook his head, “We’ll deal with them when we will, if ever.”

Though all of them hoped there would never be an ‘if ever’.

**Author's Note:**

> Goldie, Gretel and Peter belong to sleepy-lion-king and disnerd-4ever on tumblr!


End file.
